A few questions about the new Smeal quints that St. Louis has purchased. I'd prefer to hear from people who have actually worked on these rigs. Please don't make this forum a quints vs engines & trucks battlefield.

Having seen an article or two about the new quints, they look great...they seem like they'd be real easy to work off of. If you could, respond to the following:

1. Are they, in fact, easy to work off of?

2. Have you had many problems getting them in service or keeping them in service?

My engine company (in the District of Columbia) made 4631 runs last year, roughly 60% were medical. I couldn't find stats for St. Louis on the web, but I imagine you are pretty busy too.

3. Do you have a problem with wear & tear on the quints? (vs. what you used to have with engines) or do you somehow limit the number of "non-firetruck" calls they go on?

Our wagons in the city typically have a 100' bumper/trash line, a 250' 3/4" small line, 2 200' crosslays, 1 400' attack line, and a 200' 2 1/2" attack line.

4. How often do you use the small line? Do you have any quints in service that are 10 or more years old and still have a booster line in service (i.e. not broken)?

5. Do you mind having to connect the 2 1/2 if you use it.

6. How often do you use it (the 2 1/2?)

7. How are the 200' 1 3/4" compartments working out? They seemed pretty useful, but a lot more moving parts than a crosslay, if you know what i mean.

8. How much extra room is in the compartment-how much more hose could you get in there?

Every so often (more often than we use the 2 1/2") we must extend our 400' using our 100' standpipe racks, sometimes with both.

9. How do you guys make a 400' or a 600' attack line? (we usually do this b/c of poor access down an alley or something)

10. Do your SOPs place anyone on a hydrant on the initial assignment? If not, how do you complete a split lay?

I'll cut myself short at 10 questions. Initially my only question was #9, but I got to thinking...(and you know what that leads to)

Thanks in advance for answering these.

Stay safe.

Sean

01-29-2001, 08:09 PM

OFDLUIT33

I do not work for the city, however I did a ride along with them in December and did some training with them at their tower. I can't answer if they are easy to work off, I didn't mind the preconnect in the compartment. Once you learn how to load them they are pretty easy to load. I also don't know much about staying in service but the day I was at the tower with them we could not electricaly roll up the booster line. To answer #4 they use the booster very often like on dumpsters and car fires.

02-04-2001, 03:13 AM

WFDRescue2

Before transfering to my current FD I was with affliated with STLFD in several ways. I left the month our district got its first Smeal. I recently went back to do a tour with my good friends at the BIG house.(Heads up to all you guys at the 28s) and they worked with me on the new trucks. The Speedlay (pre-connect) is quite swift in it deployment and although it takes a little getting used to load, the compartment has a false, graded pannel below the hose to allow it to dry easier. The closed cab is really kick *** compared to the LTI's and Pierce Arrows that we had previosly (jumpseats were still open cab)From what I hear from my brothers back home they are great to drive and with the new GPS satellite system installed, you inform dispatch when your on scene, on investigation, in service, etc. with the push of a button on a key pad. It really cuts down on some radio traffic.

I know I didn't hit all your questions, but if you email me what you want to know I'll try my best to answer, and if I can't, I'll find you someone who can...